Second chance for Renee Gill Pratt and her accusers: Stephanie Grace

Chris Granger, The Times-PicayuneFormer state representative and city councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt, center.

Life doesn't offer many straight-up do-overs, and nor does the federal court system.

That makes former state Rep. and City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt a fortunate woman. Her first public corruption trial, for allegedly conspiring with her ex-boyfriend Mose Jefferson, his sister Betty and Betty's daughter to divert more than $1 million from various sham taxpayer-supported charities, ended with a hung jury.

So starting this week, Gill Pratt gets to try to persuade a brand new group that she didn't know what the Jeffersons did with the money she used her elected positions to steer their way, or realize that some of it wound up back in her pocket.

As lucky, or perhaps even luckier, is the prosecution, which also gets a fresh opportunity to prove Gill Pratt's guilt -- this time with the benefit of hindsight.

In some ways, the feds don't have much incentive to shift course. According to interviews with The Times-Picayune after the first trial earlier this year, just one stubborn juror stood between prosecutors and a conviction. When you've already persuaded 11 of 12 people you have a good case, you're probably on the right track.

What prosecutors can do is streamline their presentation.

Every witness on their list has now essentially auditioned; the U.S. Attorney's office can now put more emphasis on the stronger performers and skip the ones who didn't add much.

They can also try to strengthen their central arguments and solidify some of the weaker links.

One example: The feds, and everyone else who saw them testify, now knows of the apparently long-standing animosity between Gill Pratt and Betty Jefferson, the former Orleans Parish 4th District assessor who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against her brother's ex.

The tension could bolster Gill Pratt's key claim that she remained on the outside of the tight family circle -- even though she was longtime companion to Mose, former aide to his ex-congressman brother Bill, a leader of the family's political organization and a tenant in the same building where one of the charities supposedly operated.

So prosecutors might want to step up their efforts to prove that Gill Pratt really did know how the Jeffersons conducted business.

The tougher job actually falls to the defense, which has lost any element of surprise.

Gill Pratt and her lawyer Mike Fawer now know what prosecutors are going to throw at them, but their room to adjust is limited.

Gill Pratt in particular has to be exceedingly careful on the stand. She can phrase answers differently, but if she contradicts her earlier testimony, prosecutors can tell the jury and make her out to be a liar.

In fact, prior testimony often becomes so constraining in these second-chance prosecutions that they turn into "trial by transcript," according to Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino.

In some ways, Gill Pratt's co-defendants-turned-accusers are lucky to get a do-over too.

Betty Jefferson and her daughter Angela Coleman have both confessed to looting charities, funded by Gill Pratt's earmarks, that claimed to be helping clients like at-risk youths and pregnant teens. Both will once again testify against Gill Pratt, and then be sentenced for their own crimes.

One factor that U.S. District Court Judge Ivan Lemelle can consider at sentencing is whether Jefferson and Coleman seem remorseful. Frankly, based on their testimony last time, the two have plenty of room for improvement on that front.

During Gill Pratt's first trial, both mother and daughter frequently used the far-less-loaded term "misappropriating" to describe their actions, rather than copping to "stealing" or "embezzling." Jefferson even quibbled with Fawer's contention that she'd "ripped off $200,000 over a five-year period."

"I wouldn't say rip off," she said. "It's money we received."

Jefferson can keep telling herself that until she reports to prison, and even after she gets out.

On the stand, though, both she and her daughter would be wise to act a little more contrite this time around. Whether or not they actually are.